Happy Birthday to Us!

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Lee

On this day, one year ago, 4amcab was born.

Kicking and screaming we registered the website and began work on what has turned out to be a really fun project, working with lots of very talented and hilarious people. We are now offically one year old, so in terms of our development we’re on solids and getting ready to walk and dribbling all over the place.

When we started 4amcab, we didn’t know what it was going to sound like, whether it would survive more than one episode or if we’d even be able to find the time to develop it into something that people would want to listen to. One year later, we’ve had press coverage, topped the New and Noteworthy section of iTunes, have our very own company of lovely actors and a network of fantastic writers that are keen to get their work heard. We were even voted 13th best podcast in the UK! Next year we’re aiming for the top ten.

Thanks so much for your support and encouragment, this is just the beginning so stick with us as we have some exciting plans afoot.

We announced on twitter yesterday that we will be recording the first episode of Series 2 on Monday 22nd April and in the next few days we should be able to tell you more about series two, as always follow us on twitter to get updates.

We’re off to get some cake.

The Window is Shut

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Lee

A big thank you to all the writers that have sent us their work over the last month for the forthcoming series of 4amcab, our inbox has been filling up nicely. We’re going to now read everything that was sent and can begin the process of planning out all six episodes of the second series.

Follow us on twitter to keep informed about how the project is progressing and if we need any more material we’ll put a call out on there (and on here too but there’ll be links from twitter).

So once again, thank you for taking the time to contribute and we hope to be able to use as much as possible.

Call for Submissions

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Lee

The window to write for Series 2 of 4amcab is now open.

This time we are having a month long window where we are asking for your sketches so we can more thoroughly plan all 6 episodes of the second series.

Here are the details you need.

– The current window is open until Midnight Wednesday 20th March 2013
– Send your Word .doc scripts to us at this email address: ideas@4amcab.com
– Put “Series 2 submission” in the subject box – this will ensure you get a receipt to say we’ve received your work.
– On each sketch, put a header with your name and email address on, so we can keep track of who sent what.
– Send us as many sketches as you like, there is no limit.

As we are expecting to receive a lot of sketches, we are not able to offer feedback for individual sketches but if we like something or think that it could be developed we will let you know.

As always, everything that is used will get a credit on the website.

For more infomation on what to write about, have a look at the writers guide but the main thing we are looking for are short sketches with a slightly surreal or silly sensibility. Have a listen to one of the later episode of Series 1 or individual sketches on our audioboo channel.

We look forward to reading your work.

Remember, the deadline is Midnight Wednesday 20th March 2013

Really Exciting Update (really?!)

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Lee

The 4amcab tech elves (erm, that’ll be me then) are working hard in the background of the website this month to make things run a bit smoother for series two. In the past we’ve suffered from the website being a little bit unreliable meaning that sometimes you weren’t able to access the latest episode. We are making improvements that, although might not be visible on the site, should mean we have a better service when the new stuff comes out. What do you mean that’s not a very exciting update?!

So, if over the next month you come here and can’t read anything, rather than it just being one of my mispelt posts (!), it’ll probably just be down to site maintenance.

To keep up with other really exciting updates, ahem, follow us on twitter.

(This message was approved by Rachel Wheeley)

Series 2 announcement

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Rachel

So we had the big swivelly chair meeting and we’re delighted to announce that work has officially begun on 4amcab, series 2. The door will remain open to new writers, but we’re going to approach things a little differently this time.

Rather than having a deadline for each episode, we propose to do a big trawl for scripts at the beginning, and then request additional material as and when we need it as the series progresses. We’ll be releasing some guidelines for potential writers very soon.

We’ll be doing another six episodes this year, bringing back some old favourite characters from series 1, and developing some new ones.

So keep ’em peeled, and we’ll be in touch soon.

Rachel and Lee

European Podcast Award Update

Posted on February 2, 2013 by Lee

The 4amcab Microphone As of 1st February, the deadline for the public vote on the EPA has passed. We’d like to thank all our supporters for voting for us and we have our fignesr crosesd (that was a joke!) that we’ll be through to the next round. For those that are interested in how the judging panel decide who wins, this blog post highlights how the competition works.

If we are lucky enough to have enough votes to get to this stage we feel confident that we can score highly in a lot of the areas that the judges are looking at. Whatever happens, we’re chuffed to bits to have been selected as a nominee.

In other award news, we’ve almost finalised our entry for the highly prestigeous Sony Radio Academy Awards. We will be pitting ourselves against the country’s biggest comedy names in radio, so figners crssoed (stop it now!) for that too.

Once we’ve finished patting ourselves on the back, expect an announcement regarding Series Two next week.

Video Extra: Behind The Scenes

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Lee

When we recorded the Christmas Special of 4amcab way back in December of last year, we decided it might be a nice extra treat to do a bit of behind the scenes filming. I took along a camera phone and did my best in amongst directing and recording the episode. So, join us in a back room in the basement of the Alban Arena in St Albans to see how the show is put together. Included in the vodcast, for that’s what a podcast with pictures is called, we’ll see the actors running through some of the scenes and also hear the final mix that was included in the series finale.

The real reason we all do this, though, is to have an excuse to go down the pub, so we did a bit of filming over a pint or two afterwards. A big thanks to Chris Baker, Chris Luck, Anna MacLeod Franklin, Will Franklin, Jo Emery, Dan Warren and Helen Miller for not only being flippin’ brilliant in the show but also for agreeing to let me film them without giving any notice whatsoever.

News about Series Two of 4amcab will emerge shortly but in the meantime, here’s a look at some of the faces behind the characters from the show. Enjoy.

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Award Update

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Lee

The deadline for voting has been extended. You can now register your vote for 4amcab in the European Podcast Awards until 1st February 2013.

We promise we’ll stop talking about this soon ;-)

Award Deadline

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Lee

There are only a few days left to register a vote for 4amcab in the European Podcast Awards. We’ve been nominated in the Personality category and until the 15th January 2013 you can help us get through the public vote and onto the final stage which is decided by a panel of indusrty judges. Click on the following link to vote: European Podcast Award

We’ve also been featured in the Herts Advertiser, though they managed to get Rachel’s name slightly wrong ;-(

(click on the photo to see a bigger version)

S1Ep7: Christmas Special

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Lee

Ding Dong Misery on High!

It’s Christmas in the Forest of Codeine and Derek the Bi Polar Bear is not quite feeling the spirit. That is until Santa gets into a bit of trouble with Rudolph (not that kind of trouble) and our unwilling hero is brought in to save Christmas.

Meanwhile, Mairead is feeling the Christmas blues, until a chance meeting with Derek shows her that Q Shop really would be a sadder place without her.

The climax to series one of 4amcab sees some of our favourite characters shoe horned in and old gags revisited, now with added jingle bells.

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